FIGURES have revealed that the BBC paid out £22,000 to the Metropolitan Police to supervise the filming of motoring show Top Gear over a period of just eight days.

Top Gear have spent £22k to the MET over the course of the last series

A list of costings has been released detailing how the BBC have paid close to £100,000 to the Met in the first three months of 2016, with Top Gear wracking up the highest bill for a single day of filming (£2,750).

The stunt - which saw Matt LeBlanc spin around the landmark war memorial in a rally car - was slated by the media and the public for being highly disrespectful and for causing long-term damage on the road from tyre markings.

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The MET have been used for Top Gear's filming sequences, for which the BBC have spent a pretty penny

Top Gear: Series 24

Wed, March 1, 2017

Take a look behind the scenes during the filming of Top Gear minus Chris Evans.

The Top Gear production management allegedly paid Westminster Council a fee for closing Whitehall and Parliament Square in order to shoot the stunt over a weekend. Orders for road closures come in at £1,000 - £2,000.

The production would have also needed to cover the cost of traffic management plans, stewarding, maintenance and removal of all advance signing, traffic management signs, cones and barriers.

Crime drama Silent Witness topped the list with £22,200 spent on 29 officers over the longer period of 27 days. Top Gear was a close second, and in third place was alternate reality drama SS-GB with£13,500 having been spent on the production.

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Chris Evans has since announced he will not appear on Top Gear going forward

The lowest three productions on the list were EastEnders (£600 for one officer used over one day of filming), The One Show (£540) and Murder in Successville (£340).

In total, the BBC paid the Met in excess of £95,000 on 142 officers for 98 days filming - an average of £970-a-day - for all of its shows, during the months of January, February and March 2016.

A BBC spokesperson has told Express.co.uk: “When filming in public places, the safe and smooth running of our operations is of paramount importance, but we will always seek the most cost-effective approach.”